Power electronic based distribution and propulsion systems are important in a wide variety of applications including locomotives, hybrid electric vehicles, aircraft, spacecraft, and ship propulsion systems. The advantages of such systems include greater design flexibility and higher bandwidth control allowing a greater degree of optimization. In particular, for power electronic propulsion systems, the turbine speed becomes fully decoupled from the load speed, allowing the turbine speed to be optimized with regard to fuel efficiency. In addition, the elimination of the mechanical linkage between the turbine or other prime mover and the mechanical load (drive train or propeller) allows a greater degree of architectural freedom in the locomotive/vehicle/ship layout. In many electric propulsion systems consisting of a turbine driven synchronous machine feeding an induction motor drive through a rectifier--dc link--inverter frequency changer, the inverter is used to tightly regulate the motor current waveforms, which has the advantage of making the inverter/motor drive extremely robust with regard to preventing overcurrents. Power electronic converters used in power systems (ac-to-dc, dc-to-ac, and dc-to-dc) offer the advantages of higher efficiency and high bandwidth control. However, such high bandwidth regulation has the disadvantage that it makes the power electronic converters appear as negative impedance loads in a small signal sense. This negative impedance can result in dynamic instability of the power electronic system. In order to avoid such instability, it is known in the prior art to increase the dc link capacitance or add RC damping networks to the system. However, in large drive systems, such as those used in naval applications, the extra passive components can become costly in terms of space, weight, and maintenance (particularly in regard to identifying shorted capacitors in a large bank). There is, therefore, a need for a nonlinear stabilizing control which mitigates the negative impedance instability problem by shaping the input impedance of the power electronic converters without adding additional components to the system. The present invention is directed toward meeting this need.